Consumers of products that are stored in their containers for repeated access generally prefer reclosable packages, particularly for comestible products, in order to reduce deterioration of the product. Moreover, disposable containers have become increasingly prevalent in today's commercial atmosphere to satisfy this demand. However, in certain product lines, evidence of product integrity for both merchants and their customers is critical for confidence in the product quality.
Such assurance of integrity, quality, and lack of tampering has been addressed in the past using a number of different “break-away” approaches where components that are broken to open the package cannot be reattached; such as through total package wrapping, partial package wrapping (e.g., plastic wrap around the edge of the cover), or through varying sizes of seals, tapes, or labels that may be broken to access the packaged goods. Recent advances in plastic thermoform technology have afforded access to packages that contain tear lines and tear strips created by scoring or perforating the plastic, which have provided increased ability for convenient visual inspection of packages of goods that are intended to be tamper evident.
As consumers generally gravitate towards packages that are easier to visually inspect for tampering prior to purchase, tear strips have been favored over tear lines for the fact that a tangible thin strip must be removed before the package can be opened; and thus the presence of an attached tear strip easily confirms the integrity of a product. Limitations of these products, however, relate to their hinged design, wherein the hinge of the cover with the base in each of these designs falls on a perforation that is by design, structurally weakened, increasing the chances that the supplier of the goods that fills the container may inadvertently fracture the hinge. Furthermore, the thin nature and typically awkward location of the tear strip makes grabbing onto and removing the strip less consumer friendly.
As such, there is a need for new tamper evident packages that address these concerns, as well as methods of increasing prominence of the evidence of tamper with a container, e.g., of consumer goods.